New Finds is all about finding a new game and jumping into a new world. But brace yourselves for this one gamers… There is a new TCG out for Final Fantasy produced by Square Enix. Yes, you heard that right. Let the nostalgia pump through your veins because all of your favorite characters, heroes and villains from the Final Fantasy franchise are here. Even if you have never played any of the FF video games you can still find this TCG enjoyable to play. The mechanics of the game are different and seems confusing at first, but as soon as you start to understand the rules of the game and play it, it all starts flow easily.

With two sets released the game has already made an impact in the TCG world. “Opus 1” was released to North America this past October of 2016, Opus 2 was released in April 2017 and Opus 3 coming out on July 21,2017. So far, I have not been disappointed with this game and there is already a well-balanced player base in the MA/RI area.

The biggest problem with learning any new trading card game is that everyone compares it to Magic. Please stop it. LOL…. Games are way more difficult to learn if you don’t use that games terminology. For example, instead of mana for the cost to cast something, in FFTCG it’s called crystal points to play a card. The mechanics for paying something to play a card is completely different than what the mechanics are for MTG. So if you start to compare something new to MTG, new players usually tend to say that the mechanics of the new game don’t make sense because of what they’re used to. So I find that the best way that you are going to learn anything new is to start your thought process with a clean slate. Read through the rules/instructions thoroughly, and then sit down with your best mate and play.

A FFTCG deck consist of exactly 50 cards and you can have up to 3 copies of the same card. There are 3 different cards types: Forward (your attackers), Backups (provide your Crystal Points aka CP and other abilities) and Summons (uses abilities and are used in response to an action). The game is played as best of one and is won by attacking with your forwards to deal the other player seven points of damage. There are eight different styles of cards within this game that are referred as elements. Each element is focused towards different kind of players and their play style. So far I have found success in Water, Fire and Earth Elements.

When first looking at FFTCG I opened up a starter deck with a Final Fantasy 8 theme. This means that most of the character cards are categorized as that game title and they all will compliment each other for in-game abilities. Names like Cloud, Biggs, Vincent and Wedge. Here is Cloud, one of the main focuses of the deck.

No matter how many times I play this deck, once I get this card out things start to go my way. The cost required to play Cloud is reduced and then each forward gains +1000 attacking power.

And then having Vincent out and attacking with 8000 fist strike can help chip away at your opponents forwards.

Now this is just the starter decks objectives. We have already seen tournaments in the UK and the way they have taken off with the deck building gets me even more hyped to dive deeper into this game.

This has turned out to be a new favorite game to play. I highly recommend anyone to give this game a try. If you are interested, swing down to Great Stories and ask about it. Ask me. Or you can try the below sites for information to get started. Also, make sure you check back with GSI’s Facebook page to see when the next events are.